Monday, July 1, 2013

Today's Blog - July 1, 2013



A NOTE TO ALL:  I will be taking a few days off from the blog as I enjoy some time with my grandkids in the mountains.  I’ll be back on Friday.

Let’s start today with MLB baseball and the Marlins.  Jeff Mathis’ grand slam with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the Marlins to the 6-2 walk-off win over San Diego. The blast by Mathis was the 3,000th home run in the Marlins’ franchise history.  Derek Dietrich drove in the other two runs for the Marlins, who took two out of three from the Padres this weekend and look to close out the series with San Diego with a win tonight.  Jason Marquis will start on the mound for the Padres, Jose Fernandez will do the honors for the Fish.

After tonight’s game, the Marlins head to Atlanta, where they will take on the first-place Braves in a three-game set.  After the Braves series, the Fish continue on the road in St. Louis to take on the Cardinals.  The expected starters for the Braves and Marlins series are:

TUESDAY Tom Koehler vs Kris Medlen 7:10 pm
WEDNESDAY Henderson Alvarez vs Mike Minor 7:10 pm
THURSDAY Jacob Turner vs Julio Teheran 7:10 pm  

The Fish are still the worst run-scoring team in MLB, with 259 runs in their 80 games.  Here are the rest of the bottom-dwellers:

TEAM                  W-L       Runs
Marlins 29-51 259
Dodgers 38-43 294
Nationals 41-40 295
Mariners 35-47 297
White Sox 32-47 298

Don’t look now, but the Yankees are sitting at seventh worst in MLB with 310 runs scored.  Who would have thunk it?

In the major leagues yesterday, in the American League,

Red Sox 5 Blue Jays 4
The Sox scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a fielding error by Josh Thole  

Rays 3 Tigers 1
Jose Lobaton went 3-3 with two RBI.  Miguel Cabrera homered for the Tigers in the loss.

Indians 4 White Sox 0
Justin Masterson threw his third shutout of the season, allowing just six hits in the game.

Angels 3 Astros 1
Josh Hamilton hit a tie-breaking RBI double in the eighth inning.

Royals 9 Twins 8
David Lough went 4-4 with a home run and three RBI.  Eric Hosmer connected long distance for the Royals.

Orioles 4 Yankees 2
Chris Davis blasted his 31st home run of the season as the Orioles completed a three-game sweep of the Yankees, their first sweep of the Yankees since 2005.  Manny Machado had three hits and a home run.

Rangers 3 Reds 2
Yu Darvish allowed four hits in six scoreless innings of work and the Rangers won for the eighth time in ten games.  The Reds have dropped seven of their last nine.

A’s 7 Cardinals 5
Jed Lowrie and Josh Donaldson connected long distance, Lowrie finished with three RBI.

Cubs 7 Mariners 5
Anthony Rizzo drove in a pair of runs as the Cubbies have won four out of their last five.

Over in the National League,

Nationals 13 Mets 2
Gio Gonzalez allowed only three hits in seven shutout innings.  Adam Laroche and Jayson Werth homered and every position player for the Nats drove in a run.

Braves 6 D-Backs 2
The Braves completed a three-game sweep of Arizona as Freddie Freeman, Brian McCann, and Dan Uggla all connected long distance.  The Braves have won five out of their last six.

Pirates 2 Brewers 1 (14 innings)
The Pirates won their ninth consecutive game on Russell Martin’s pinch-hit single in the 14th inning.  Gaby Sanchez singled and stole second base to start the inning.  

Giants 5 Rockies 2
Buster Posey and Hunter Pence homered in the win.  Michael Cuddyer went 1-4 for the Rockies to extend his hitting streak to 27 games.

Dodgers 6 Phillies 1
Stephen Fife worked seven scoreless innings and Yasiel Puig went 4-5, including a double and a triple.  Puig is tearing it up.  Since arriving in Los Angeles on June 3rd, Puig is hitting .436, with 7 homers and 16 RBI in 26 games.  

Today’s games, first, in the American League,

Tigers @ Blue Jays 1:07 pm
Jose Alvarez vs RA Dickey

Yankees @ Twins 8:10 pm
Andy Pettitte vs Scott Diamond

Rays @ Astros 8:10 pm
Matt Moore vs Dallas Keuchel

Over in the National League,

Brewers @ Nationals 7:05 pm
Yovani Gallardo vs Jordan Zimmerman

Padres @ Marlins 7:10 pm
Jason Marquis vs Jose Fernandez

Diamondbacks @ Mets 7:10 pm
Wade Miley vs Shaun Marcum

Giants @ Reds 7:10 pm
Mike Kickham vs Bronson Arroyo

Nothing  new to report on the Ricky Nolasco trade front, but more and more it seems that the Dodgers are still the front runners to obtain the services of the righthander, although the Giants are also interested and the Pirates are said to also be kicking the tires since Wandy Rodriguez and AJ Burnett are on the DL.  Regardless of where he ends up, Nolasco is not expected to make his next scheduled start for the Marlins.  Henderson Alvarez has been penciled in to make the Wednesday start in Atlanta against the Braves.

David Schoenfield of ESPN has his June Report Card for the month of June in the major leagues:


Jon-Paul Morosi of Fox Sports talks about the trade market:


Just for fun, here are the trade rumors from ESPN.com:


Here are the up-to-the-minute standings in MLB:


Here are the individual league leaders in MLB:


HERE IS TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION:  Yasiel Puig’s first month in the major leagues is one for the ages.  Puig’s 44 hits in his first calendar month in the big leagues is the second highest hit total by a player in his first month.  Who has the record? Tell you later, alligator.   

Ray Allen decided to exercise his player option for 2014 and will return to the Heat next season.  Here’s the complete story from Brian Windhorst of ESPN:


The NBA free-agency period is off and running, and the biggest question is where Dwight Howard is going to end up.  Here’s ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin and Ramona Shelbourne story:


ESPN also has a rumor blog for the NBA.  CHeck it out here:


Aaron Hernandez is still in jail.  I read this on the internet, so it must be true:  Hernandez is being questioned about the disappearance of Manti Teo’s imaginary girlfriend.

For those of you that say I hardly talk soccer, you’re right.  Here’s ESPN telling us that Brazil beat Spain yesterday in the Confederations Cup:


We have reached the final 16 in both the men’s and women’s brackets in Wimbledon.  Here’s ESPN’s coverage:


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I’m selling a little over three acres in the beautiful North Carolina mountains, overlooking the New River, a quick 35-minute drive from Boone and Blowing Rock.  Click here to see some photos and feel free to contact me if you have any questions: 


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THE ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: Yasiel Puig’s first month in the major leagues is one for the ages.  Puig’s 44 hits in his first calendar month in the big leagues is the second highest hit total by a player in his first month.  Who has the record?

Let’s set the DeLorean back to May of 1936.  Some guy named Joe DiMaggio had 48 hits in his first calendar month in the big leagues.  

Don’t miss my two “Descarga Deportiva” radio segments (for the Spanish-challenged, “Sports Jam Session”) every day, Monday through Friday, at 9:25 am and 12:15 pm on Radio Esperanza, 1550 AM or on the internet on www.miradioesperanza.com

IF YOU OR ANYONE YOU KNOW WANT TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE ON MY RADIO SEGMENTS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME FOR ALL THE DETAILS - jerry@descargadeportiva.com

Behave yourselves, and always remember that tomorrow will bring us a brand new day.

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